‘They were surprised to learn that the ambulance is for humans not animals’.

It later became clear that a language barrier had resulted in the call handler mistakenly believing that a woman was in need of help, and not a pigeon.

Emergency Planning Officer Chris Hawkswell added: ‘Fortunately incidents like this are very rare but we’d still like to remind Londoners to use us wisely and contact our colleagues in the RSPCA for advice on animal welfare’.